Seri watched her members helplessly as she gripped her skateboard. How were they doing that? Why were none of them falling off?

The jacket shooting had been full of those types of thoughts so far. It’s not like she didn’t like the concept. On the contrary, she loved it. She loved the way they were all styled, and she loved the overall vibe of it. It’s just that she had never tried skateboarding before, and she didn’t think she’d be able to get it in time for her shots.

Maybe she’d just settle for sitting shots.

“Noona!”

She was pulled out of her thoughts as Taehyun speedily made his way over to her. A laugh escaped her lips while she reached out to catch him so he wouldn’t skate past her.

“Slow down, Tyun,” she helped him off the board, “I don’t want you getting hurt. Also you’re tall enough without the board.”

“You should try skating.” The younger laughed when she gave him a pointed look. “It’s not as hard as you think! And you won’t get hurt, I promise.”

Taehyun took her board from her hands and placed it down. He held out his hands for her to take and gave her a slight pleading look.

“You better not let go of me.” Taehyun just laughed at that her nervousness.

For around five minutes, Taehyun walked around the flat area, pulling her along with him. Every now and then, she’d feel him pull harder then loosen his grip so she’d roll forward alone, but she’d tighten her hold on his sleeve to keep him from getting too far.

All of her little surprised noises and sudden tugs resulted into fond chuckles from Taehyun. While he knew that she trusted him with her life, he also knew that she really didn’t want to get any scabs just before promotions start.

“Break time, Tyun,” she pulled on his hands, “please? I need to get off of this accident on wheels before I fall off.”

He laughed at her once more and steadied the board with his foot for her to step off. “There you go. That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

The moment her feet hit solid ground, she plopped herself onto the ground and glared at the skateboard. The sounds of Taehyun’s chuckles accompanied with the excited hoots of Kai as he filmed on his skateboard snapped her out of her one-sided fight.

She watched Taehyun as he settled next to her on the ground. The two of them watched Kai in silence. An unknowing smile made its way onto her face while she watched Kai have the time of his life goofing off with his skateboard. The added sight of the staff chasing after him for his cuts was a bonus.

“You see that?” Taehyun pointed to his fellow 02 liner. “Kai just keeps going without a second thought. That’s how it should be. Think of this as another confidence lesson. Keep going forward without doubting or having second thoughts.”

She looked him up and down before fondly shaking her head. “You really are living up to your title as TXT’s King Solomon.”

“Come on, noona! You can’t tell me you didn’t have fun on the skateboard!”

“Well...”

The younger got up from where he was sitting and pulled her up with him. With the slightest reluctance, she followed him. It wasn’t that far of a distance, she just found herself standing in front of the skateboard once again.

“Tyun...”

“Noona...” Her eyebrows raised at his imitating tone. “Just try. Go fast once, and I swear I’ll be running right beside you to catch you if you fall.”

She looked at his pleading eyes for a second before relenting and stepping on the skateboard. “Fine, but only here on the flat part.”

Taehyun’s enthusiastic nodding was all she needed to push off.

She pushed a few more times, harder than she did previously. True to his word, Taehyun was right beside her the whole time.

“Woah,” she exchanged a look with him. The wind flowed through her hair, a free feeling overtaking her.

“Feels nice, huh?” She could only nod at Taehyun’s question, a big grin on her face. “I told you it would be fun.”

“Okay, you win this,” she laughed before a frown made it’s way to her face. “Tyun, I don’t know how to stop!”

It was a free day for Tomorrow by Together.

Seri had decided to sleep in. In her mind, a peaceful day was set. Ordering food, a movie and snacks, a workout with Taehyun, and maybe insert some messing around in the company building. She didn’t picture waking up to Choi line bickering in her and Yeonjun’s room.

“I’m literally older than Seri.” Beomgyu’s voice sounded like he was right next to her. True enough, the Daegu boy was sitting on her bed, a hand patting her shoulder as if she were a baby he was lulling to sleep. “This puts me on the older half of the group. Therefore, I am hyung line.”

“I mean, if you think of it,” Yeonjun began, “If we divide our age groups, we have 1999 and 2000 in hyung line and 2001 and 2002 in maknae line. Technically you’re part of maknae line.”

“My birthday gap with Soobin is literally smaller than my one with Seri.”

“He kinda has a point,” Soobin’s voice seemed to be getting closer to her, “but I do still want to go by Yeonjun hyung’s logic. It splits our age group perfectly. Good morning, Lily.”

She opened one eye to find Soobin smiling down at her.

Yeonjun scoffed from his bed. “Saying good morning to someone sleeping, huh?”

“She’s not asleep,” Soobin chuckled. “That’s my baby, of course I know when she’s awake.”

“I’m not your baby,” Seri muttered while sitting up. The bed shifted while Beomgyu left the room and Soobin sat next to her.

“She’s my baby,” Yeonjun gave a triumphant smile.

She held her hand up in his direction. “Not your baby, either.”

“Come on,” Yeonjun sighed, “We’re like two years apart. I’ve raised you since you entered the company. I know all the stuff you like, don’t like, and the food you’re not allowed to have.”

“Which I know as well since I’m her friend and leader.”

“But I take care of her the most.” The eldest member was pouting at this point. He didn’t even notice Beomgyu walk into the room with a bowl of cereal and a croissant she had saved for breakfast. “So what if you guessed she was awake once. I know her better, so I’m the better parent, right?”

Soobin watched Yeonjun rant amusedly. “Does there really have to be a better one, though? We both take care of her, anyway.”

“No, there doesn’t,” Seri laughed while accepting the bowl of cereal from Beomgyu who had made his way under her covers as well, “but Bammie’s in the running for top spot right now.”

Beomgyu smirked at the two elder Chois as he opened Seri’s laptop before putting on an innocent look. “Don’t tell me you guys forgot she likes having food after waking up before talking to anyone.”

“So you kinda have to use your legs to activate your hands before stretching them out... Yeah, like that! It looks great, noona!”

Seri grinned at the younger boy’s praise. She was in the practice room with Ni-ki while going over their collaboration stage. Though she was struggling a bit to follow through with what the choreographer showed them three sessions ago, Ni-ki had been helping her through it all.

“Should we go through it one more time before calling it a day?”

“I’m way ahead of you.”

She pressed play and quickly got into position. Their next run went by quickly without much mistakes, but she noted some parts where she could shift her limbs a little to look less awkward.

“Thanks, Ni-ki,” she handed him a water bottle. “I’m sorry you have to dim down your skills to do this stage with me.”

The younger’s eyes widened as he rapidly shook his head. “No, I like this, noona! And you’re a really good dancer, just not confident.”

“You know what? You’re being sweet, so I’ll treat you to lunch before you practice with your members.”

“You’re an angel sent from above.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t pay yesterday.”

The two of them quickly gathered their things before heading out of the practice room. Taehyun caught them as they were putting on their masks and getting ready to leave.

“Oh, noona,” he smiled, “hi, Ni-ki. Noona, Kai and I were gonna go watch a few Youtube videos while eating before practice. Wanna join us?”

“Ni-ki and I are buying lunch, but later when I get back, okay, Tyun?” She patted his cheek and led Ni-ki out the door.

Taehyun could only wave with a tight-lipped smile while Ni-ki abruptly waved. His head hung low once the doors closed. With a sigh, he turned back towards their practice room.

“Did you get noona?” Kai asked his fellow maknae the moment the older walked into the room. Upon seeing Taehyun shake his head, the younger sighed.

“This whole week,” he sprawled himself across the floor, “I haven’t gotten to spend lunch with Seri noona this whole week.”

“None of us have,” Taehyun frowned. “I mean, it’s nice that she’s getting along well with Ni-ki because it would make their collab stage a lot nicer if they had good chemistry, but she never took that much time to practice with Miya.”

The two 02 liners were frustrated. It’s not that they were frustrated with the Enhypen maknae himself. Not at all. Seri usually ate lunch with one of the two boys, even back before she graduated high school, so they were quite upset about not being able to see her.

Taehyun and Kai, both disappointed at having missed the chance to spend time with their noona, turned to the laptop in the room and began watching what they had planned in silence.

Meanwhile, Seri chatted animatedly about who knows what while leading Ni-ki to a cafe nearby that she hasn’t taken him to yet.

“Noona, is Taehyun hyung okay?”

“Why wouldn’t he be?” Seri asked.

“Well,” the younger boy scratched the back of his neck, “he looked a little upset a while ago when we were heading out. I think he wanted to eat with you.”

Seri, despite not being able to show it through her mask, gave a fond smile. She knew that her maknaes were feeling somewhat upset, which is why she decided to bring Ni-ki to this specific cafe. They had this specific chocolate bread that Kai loved and a pasta dish that usually made Taehyun excited whenever she comes back to the dorm with it. To make up for the past week of missing out on lunch, she was planning on buying those for them. That didn’t mean she couldn’t take her hoobae group’s maknae out to eat at the same time, though.

“He’ll be fine,” Seri reassured the younger. “I’ve got something in mind for him and Hyuka. For now though, let’s head on in. There’s this drink that I think you might like.”

Soon enough, just fifteen minutes later, Seri was making her way into the TXT practice room. She had dropped Ni-ki off at the Enhypen practice room with the agreement of just eating takeout to not risk being exposed to any sickness outside. When she entered her own practice room, though, she was met by the cold silence of the two 02 liners. She shook her head fondly at them while removing her coat and spraying alcohol all over it.

“You two having fun?”

“You wouldn’t know.” Kai’s grumble was so low that she almost didn’t hear it.

Taehyun, on the other hand, chose not to look at her when he spoke. “How was lunch?”

“I don’t know,” she laughed at Taehyun’s slightly hostile way of asking. “I was thinking we could talk about lunch together, you know?”

She put the two fairly large paper bags in front of them, the familiar logo catching their attention. The two boys sat up straight and watched as Seri set the containers of food down in between them, as well as the drinks she had bought.

“I thought you were having lunch with Ni-ki again.” Taehyun’s eyes widened when he saw her grabbing three sets of forks out of the bag instead of two.

“I said we were buying lunch,” she poked Taehyun’s cheek. “Listening skills, Tyun.”

Taehyun’s cheeks reddened a little at his misunderstanding while Kai hit the older’s leg.

“But weren’t you going to eat with Ni-ki?”

“Heesung would’ve fought me if I took his maknae from him again,” she laughed. “Besides, I have my maknaes practically craving my attention.”

She pinched their cheeks, in turn making them frown at her. Taehyun lightly pulled her hand away from his face while Kai swatted it away.

“No we aren’t.”

Seri quietly snuck her way into the practice room were Yeonjun was having 1 on 1 lessons with a modeling coach.

“Modeling coach.” She snorted at those words.

Out of the six TXT members, Yeonjun was the one most capable of going on a runway even without coaching. It just amused her that he hired a coach when he wasn’t going to be walking for too long.

Anyway, she dumped her bag on the side and took a sip of water while Yeonjun practiced walking. She could see their T:Time camera staff approaching her. She laughed and pointed at Yeonjun.

“And I thought I was the only one who was trained how to strut.”

She saw the way Yeonjun’s head snapped towards her the moment her laugh echoed around the training room. His eyes widened, and he stumbled over his shoe a little bit.

“Maybe you should take a break,” the instructor laughed. Yeonjun nodded and bowed before turning towards Seri.

“Lily,” he ran over to her and sat next to her on the floor, “what are you doing here? Aren’t you working on that thing?”

“I came early,” she laughed and handed him a bottle of energy juice. “I came to give you support and energy. Once you’re done with the shoots, though we’re going out for samgyupsal.”

“You’re treating?”

“What am I?” She scoffed at him, making him laugh. “Do you think I’m crazy? You pay because you’ll have modeling money.”

Her batting eyelashes made the older boy scrunch his face up at her. “Fine.”

“Seri-ssi,” the instructor called out, “would you like to try? You know, while you’re here?”

“Gladly!”

Seri got up went to the other end of the room while Yeonjun watched from his spot on the ground. The instructor gave her a brief touch on the basics, especially with posture. Two minutes later, a song is playing, and Seri is walking from one end of the room to the other impressively.

“Why are you so good at this?” Yeonjun asked her as she paused in front of him and did some poses.

“Those special dance classes I took back in 2017 taught me different ways to walk in a choreography,” she blew him a kiss and turned around to walk back to her starting point, “and model walking is important for elegant girl group choreography. I mean, have you seen The Boys by SNSD?”

She reached the starting point once again and flipped her hair a little before giving an exaggerated bow. “I can’t dance, but I can walk like a boss.”

Yeonjun just looked into the T:Time camera. “I wonder why she isn’t walking the runway.”

Seri laughed and thanked the instructor before approaching Yeonjun. She handed him a container with sandwiches and slung her bag over her shoulder.

“It’s almost eleven,” she told him, “so I have to go. Eat that in a bit, alright? It’s the weird strawberry jam you guys like.”

Yeonjun chuckled at her mild disgust and gave her a hug. She waved at him as she walked backwards out of the room.

“Good luck, oppa! Do well, or I might just take your spot.”

Yeonjun was worried for Seri, that was for sure. 

Beomgyu and Taehyun had come back from school without her saying she told them to go ahead because she had something to study and work on. Understandably, she was in the year above them, so they didn’t have the same classes, but she always made sure to go home with Beomgyu and Taehyun. 

That’s how he found himself standing in front of her school, waiting for her to come. 

He checked his phone. It was already seven, so why was she not coming out. He was getting antsy to the point where the security guard took pity on him and just let him go inside. He quickly raced to her classroom only to find her hunched over books. She had fallen asleep on her desk. With a sigh of relief, he approached her. He raised his hand to shake her awake, but his eyes fell on something crumpled on the ground by her feet. He didn’t know why, but he picked it up and read it. 

“Oh, god no,” he muttered as he processed what he was reading. It looks like some people (three by the looks of the different handwritings on the paper) were saying bad things about Seri. Mostly about how she was a fake who didn’t deserve to debut… He saw names in the corner. Seyeon, Minseo, and Ahreum. He kept those names in mind.

“Aigoo, Yoon Seri,” Yeonjun shook his head before kneeling down next to her sleeping form and gently shaking her awake. “Lily? Wake up. Time for us to go home.”

“Home?”

He watched her slowly sit up and stretch to get her senses back in order. The way she stretched made him smile a little. Of all the times she could resemble a cat, it was most evident when she stretched.

“Oh,” she was taken back when she saw her eldest member beside her, “oppa? What are you doing here?”

“I came to pick you up,” he smiled at how she only then processed he was the one who woke her up. “This is the first time I’ve been in your classroom, huh? How about you show me around?”

Seri nodded excitedly before standing up and showing Yeonjun the different parts of their classroom. “This is my seat! I sit beside Chaeryoung. You know her from Itzy. We usually stick together because we miss about the same amount of classes. Our board has thies little messages we all wrote for our future selves, look!”

He followed her and looked at the series of papers on the corner of their board. He took a look at hers. You’ll do well with them by your side as long as you’re you. It was something simple yet so encouraging, especially to someone like Seri. He lightly ruffled her hair.

“Cute,” he told her before taking her hand and her bag. She picked up her folder and papers just before he pulled her out. Yeonjun made a mental note to set the four 01 and 02 liners’ alarms later by a bit for the next day.

Yeonjun was peacefully scrolling through his phone when the door to the bedroom opened. He glanced up and saw Seri place her bag on her bed and walk towards him.

“You’re home early today,” he sat up when she settled on his bed. “No after school project working or studying?”

“Not today,” she crossed her legs before placing three sheets of paper in between them. “Care to explain what these are?”

He picked up the papers and skimmed through them. A smirk made its way up to his face when he realized what they were. He wiped the grin off his face and feigned ignorance.

“Are these written apologies? What’s wrong? Did someone do something bad to you?”

“These three classmates who don’t really like me gave them to me today,” she raised her eyebrow. “You don’t suppose it has something to do with the fact that our alarms were set one hour later than usual this morning, do you?”

“You think so?” He asked her, a small smile on his face.

“Stop,” she laughed, “I know it was you. Chaeryoung told me you came in this morning and talked to them. How’d you even know?”

“I saw the note yesterday,” he admitted, “and I guess it was pretty obvious considering you don’t talk much about school. I mean, you’re taking up musical theatre, so it’s a little suspicious you don’t talk our ears off about it.”

He grunted a little when Seri lunged forward and hugged him. “Thank you, oppa. You didn’t have to.”

“It’s you,” he hugged her back. “I wanted to. Just make sure to tell me if they get back at it, okay?”

“As long as you promise you won’t use threatening or violence.”